This
is the 4th part.
Flashback continued ... where Shanak meet for the first time. Not a long
one, am not creative enough to write so much ya ... taking a shot with this story...
The first interaction:
The
flight landed at the Heathrow airport, London. A cold wind hits her as she gets
off the plane with her cabin hand baggage. She immediately stops at the first
aisle, to pull up er jacket zipper till her neck.
Still
feeling terribly cold, she continues following the directions to the luggage
section. She walks out, picking her luggage, doing all the formalities at
migration and then moved towards the arrivals gate to move out.
She
had been given the numbers whom she was supposed to call. Her manager from
London, Srinivas, had said someone would come to pick her up at the airport.
She
had no clue who that would be, she was praying it will be Lalit, the only
person other than her manager that she knew here. She picked her phone and
thought of dialing from it, but then remembered she had never activated the
international roaming on it. She looked around and saw the public telephone
booth.
Out
of the few currencies she checked which one could be used and went ahead to
make that call to the first number on the list of numbers given, Lalit. He
picked it up in one ring and spoke.
After
getting the directions as to where they were waiting to pick her up, she moved
forward hurling her cart ahead. She looked around at the waiting lounge to see
where Lalit was.
As
she stood there, she could see a guy watching her closely, "Looks like an Indian, but no guarantee" she murmured to herself.
She
looked down at herself checking if she was looking so bad that people would be
staring at her as if she was an ancient monument from a different place. Her
pair of jeans was still quite clean compared to ones around her and her dark
brown jacket was looking good too, she was thankful that her crumpled t-shirt
was not seen.
She
looked up again and still saw the guy looking at her. He was sporting a pair of
blue jeans, black t-shirt and a grey jacket, open in front, looking stylish. During
her second glance at him, she noticed how handsome he was - tall, fair, his
dark hair falling on his forehead a bit tousled, his eyes penetrative, below
his dark brows, pink lips pressed against each other as if a bit tensed.
Their
eyes met and held for a few seconds, before both moved their faces to the left
and right. She turned to her right and could see from the corner of her eyes that
he had turned around looking at the coffee shop behind, calling somebody behind
him.
She
faintly heard a raw voice say "Lalit!" and
turned around. She could see Lalit walking from behind the same person with
another dark guy sporting jeans and a dark sweatshirt.
Lalit,
dressed in a jeans, cotton shirt and a smart black jacket, smiled at her and
hurried towards her. The other guy was also following him. The guy who had been
watching her was also walking towards her, staying behind a couple of steps.
Lalit
warmly met her with a smile "hi! How was
the flight"
Khanak: "Good, How are you?"
Lalit:
"Good, must be tired na?"
Khanak:
"yeah, slightly."
Lalit:
"This is Ramesh" pointing to the sweatshirt
guy.
Ramesh
gives a big smile, and says "Hi, from
Mumbai?"
Khanak:
"Hi, yes"
Ramesh:
"Good, could have guessed from far that
you would be from Mumbai only."
Khanak
was gonna ask how did he guess that, but before she could say anything, he said
"The fact that you stood here without
asking anyone around and freaking out speaking loudly in hindi says it all!"
She
just gave a small smile "hmm."
By
now the other guy with the grey jacket had come up and stood behind Ramesh.
Ramesh:
"He is my friend, Shantanu". To him "Shaan, she is Khanak!"
Shantanu
just nods a soft "hi" with a small smile.
Khanak:
"Hi!"
Ramesh
walks ahead towards the exit "Lets go guys".
Lalit
takes the big bag from the trolley, Shaan offers to take her cabin baggage, but
she nods in a no "Its fine."
Slowly
they walked towards the exit, she is walking behind Lalit, and Shaan is walking
behind Ramesh, calling out to him "Ramesh, Slow down ya."
When
they step out, she is hit by the freezing air and shivers a little. Shaan sees
that and quickly asks "Are you ok?"
She
is just barely able to say "yeah, its really cold!" She folds her hands around
herself to keep herself warm.
Lalit
looks back and sees her shivering "Thoda
time lagega to get used to the weather here."
Ramesh
has moved to the right towards the parked car, and is waiting. Shaan walks up
to the driver's seat, opens the car door and bends to open the car boot. Lalit
is waiting at the dickey to put the luggage in. Ramesh just goes ahead and sits
in the passenger seat. Shaan "Lalit check
kar, dickey khuli hain"
Lalit
opens the dickey and picks her big bag to deposit it into the open boot. Shaan
joins him, adjusting the bag to fit in and then bends to pick her cabin bag as
well. After the two bags are adjusted in the dickey, Lalit directs her towards
the back seat. Shaan walks with her and bends
down to ask, "Laptop bag nahi rakhni?"
She
nods in a "No, Thanks. I will take in
with me in the back seat."
He
holds the door of the back seat for her while she settles in. She moves in and
pulls the door while he closes the same from outside.
Ramesh
already has his eyes shut on the front passenger seat. Shaan looks at him and
then exchanges a glance with Lalit. Lalit sighs and looks at Khanak, catches her
looking at him and quickly gives her a smile "woh kal party thi na tho late soye thhe hum sab."
Khanak
is sitting with her hands folded across her chest, holding her arms on both sides
to avoid shivering with the cold. Shaan clicks the heater button as soon as he starts
the car.
Khanak
smiles and looks ahead "I will be staying
with whom Lalit?"
Lalit
says "Tujhe bataya nahi kya Srini ne, you
are going to stay with Natasha!"
Khanak:
"Oh!" (Natasha had been one of the
hawt and most wanted girl on the floor when she was in the offshore office)
Shaan
quickly glances behind to look at Lalit.
Lalit
gives him a smile "Yeah Shaan! do you
know the address?"
Shaan:
"Bright woods na?"
Lalit:
"yes, but she is not there now. Ye Ramesh was supposed to take the keys from
her. Ramesh, Chaabi hain na?"
Ramesh
just mumbles "hmm, yeah"
Lalit
and Shaan smile. Khanak is lost as to whats happening.
She
could see that they were on some highway now.
Khanak
softly to Lalit "Kitni der lagegi?"
Lalit:
"Shaan, around 1-1.5 hours?"
Shaan:
"Yeah, Around 1 hour 30 mins more to go.
She can grab a wink if she wants."
Khanak
decided to be awake not sure of the company she has. Not that she does not
trust Lalit, she had known him from almost 8-9 months before he moved to
London, almost a month back. But she wanted to be alert, so sat up and
concentrating on the location going by in the window.
She
glances ahead for a moment trying to read which way were they headed. And while
doing so, sees his eyes in the rear view mirror. Their eyes meet for a moment, immediately
they pull out of the gaze. He is concentrating on the road ahead and she turns
right to look out the window again.
Both don't realize that their hearts had
skipped a beat at the moment their eyes met ...😳
Edited by dishbhan - 12 years ago
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